Condition is key when negotiating.You can always work your way up to an acceptable price before escrow, and negotiate during your inspection period.You can overwhelm them with repair lists, and ask for a reduction of small to medium size and put a marker so you meet and your exceed your target number. 

I could offer a principal reduction to say $35,000 (over half the current balance) and then when the new lender refinances, I would get $35,000 pay off, minus my costs.

Samsung purchasing agents had to show that they got a 10% reduction from original quotes in order to satisfy their managers.  

I have rentals in places where I cannot ask them to do yard work or shovel the snow without some sort of written agreement between me and the tenant and some consideration (rent reduction or $ in exchange for doing those services). 

You figured right down to every cent for everything including depreciation, adding-back depreciation, minus mortgage principal reduction, all of which result in an annual $2,721.31 net free cash flow for you.

The advertised return estimates include expected tax benefits and principal reduction which I personally never include in my forecasting. 

I believe having a small solar PV array, tight building envelope, extra insulation, reduction of thermal breaks, continuous supply of filtered fresh air through an ERV, and energy star products can be enough to get a "green" premium on new houses.  

These TDR credits are my REI stock in trade and my main current focus is acquisition, just starting to venture into the liquidation end that will result in receiving fat payments.For the foreseeable future, the only place where you can "cash in" TDR credits is in the SW Urban Growth Area, which is the area of unincorporated county west of I-5, between the cities of Everett and Lynnwood.

But I saw him go through hell of trying to hold rents, rising vacancy, rent abatement and finally reduction, which brought him to the financial brink.  

A quick question on entity structure and insurance: As I'm planning on investing in multiple properties over the long-term, I'm considering forming a series LLC in Texas, which has several benefits in terms of administrative cost reduction (relative to having an LLC per property).